Suliasi Vunivalu on the brink of something special - being able to chew
Fried chicken and burgers on the agenda as Melbourne Storm flyer Suliasi Vunivalu counts down the days to being able to chew solid food again as he recovers from the worst injury of his career.
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Melbourne Storm superstar Suliasi Vunivalu has had gut full of soft and blended foods.
The strike winger dropped five kilograms in the first three days after surgery to mend a hairline fracture of the jaw on a menu of soggy Weetbix, bone broths and basic vegetable soups.
Ice cream has recently been added to the broken jaw diet plan and what could only be described as a butter chicken smoothie, which Vunivalu concocted this week as a replacement for tomato soup.
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“I hate tomatoes and last night we had tomato soup,” Vunivalu said.
“It wasn’t good for me so I came back and ordered butter chicken.
“I blended the chicken and chucked it back in the sauce with rice and swallowed it.”
It should come as no surprise the chiselled Fijian has already pencilled in fried chicken or burgers next weekend to celebrate being able to chew again.
“I have another week before I can get back to eating solids a little bit,” Vunivalu said.
“I’m hanging out for that, I can’t wait to have something to chew on.
“I’m thinking of sneakily ordering KFC, or a Big Mac.”
Even drinking water through a straw was problematic, which might explain why teammate Brandon Smith, also recuperating from a broken jaw, has turned to pureed baby food for sustenance.
“We’d rather have something else (any other injury) than a broken jaw,” Vunivalu said.
“You can’t really eat, you can’t really open your mouth.”
Surgery was successful but recovery has been forgettable.
“You feel like eating (after surgery) but you can’t really open your mouth with what they have to slice through your jaw, so it’s pretty much just water with a straw.”
The challenge now is to try and put weight on, a challenge in itself for the sculpted specimen.
Enter the ice cream and any other “fatty” food soft enough to be swallowed as is.
Not being able to run yet has helped the cause and allowed Vunivalu to catch up on Netflix and strengthen a troublesome left hamstring that has caused him problems, this year and last.
Despite the setback, Vunivalu should be back in time for the first final.
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The 24 year-old, who late last year signed with Super Rugby outfit Queensland Reds for 2021, has scored nine tries in 12 matches in 2020 to take his career tally to 81 from only 106 NRL appearances.
Two more would see him leapfrog Will Chambers (82) as the club’s fourth-most prolific tryscorer behind only Billy Slater (190), Matt Geyer (113) and Cooper Cronk (92).
As nice as it has been to make tries a habit, the Fijian flyer wants wins to define a swan song season.
“If it’s my last season … I want to go out on a high,” Vunivalu said.
“Right now, I’m with Storm, and hopefully we can do something special.”
Originally published as Suliasi Vunivalu on the brink of something special - being able to chew